Long Pasia's senior citizen receives MyKad after 51 years

SIPITANG - A senior citizen's 51-year wait to get his personal identification document ends when he finally gotten the MyKad two weeks ago.

Harun Usim, 63, said throughout the time he depended on a receipt from the National Registration Department (NRD) as a personal identification document.

He said there were many challenges throughout the process to gain his Mykad which included going back and forth from Long Pasia to Sipitang capital 16 times other than being forced to walk for four days to go to the NRD in Sipitang.

"It started in 1974 at the office (NRD) in Sipitang, I waited but it wasn't until the year 2000 that the NRD staff came to Long Pasia, I proceeded to apply but did not receive anything.

"They asked me to go to Putrajaya (NRD Headquarters) in Kota Kinabalu and then I could gain the Mykad.

“Throughout the process, I was asked to submit documents 16 times including my marriage certificate, birth certificate, baptism certificate as well as my year six school graduation certificate.

"In fact, I used to walk from Long Pasia and had to spend the night for four days in the forests of Maligan in Ulu Bole and Mandulong until it caused me to arrive late at the NRD office for the submission of documents," he told Sinar Harian recently.

Harun said the difficulties in gaining the personal identification document was due to his late registration for his birth certificate when he was born.

"I was born here (Long Pasia) in 1952, but due to my late registration it had caused some difficulties to get this identification card," he explained.

Speaking about the difficulties of completing matters without a personal identification document, Harun said he was forced to gain a signature from NRD for the receipt used as a replacement for an identification document.

"All of my affairs depended on the receipt including the inspection from the immigration officer when heading to the Peninsula.

"But there were several affairs that could not go through including the application for land grants and I had to use my children’s names for those," he said.

The father of former national team footballer Ronny Harun admitted that he was disappointed because of how difficult it was to receive the identification document.

"I am disappointed, I thought I would never get my identification card (IC) and finally on Wednesday (Nov 3) I received it in Sipitang JPN.

"After I received it now I can rest easy because there are no more doubts and I am grateful to all parties who helped me get this IC," he said.

Long Pasia represented a remote area in Sipitang where distance was more than 130 kilometres from Sipitang capital.

The long journey from Long Pasia to Sipitang capital could only be made using a four-wheel drive vehicle due to poor road conditions that were muddy, red soil and rocky causing residents to have difficulties leaving the village.